Day 8: Ladies and Gentleman, we have cells.

Before we get to the cells, let me fill you on what’s been going on.   Oh, by the way, it’s Brett again.  I think it was on Day 4 when the attending Dr. told Jessie, “Every good day, is one less bad day.”  We couldn’t really appreciate his sentiment at the time, but now fully understand.  The last few days have been rough on Jessie.  First, there is pain associated with her mucositis, which is primarily in her throat and makes it difficult and painful to swallow.  To treat her pain, they give her dilaudid.  The dilaudid works well for the pain, but contributes to her already existing nausea.  So to treat the nausea, they give her zofran on a regular basis and compazine and ativan as needed, which she does often need.  The nausea drugs make her very drowsy, which is compounded by the Benadryl that they have to give her as a premedication to her daily platelet transfusion.  This is a long way of saying that Jessie is in and out of sleep most of the day and a bit weary even when awake.  And, due to the nausea and pain from swallowing, Jessie is now on intravenous nutrition. 

In addition to the mucositis and nausea, two days ago Jessie spiked a fever, which is fairly common, but could mean that Jessie has an infection, so they load her full of antibiotics and culture her blood to check.  The fever could also mean that the blood from the two transplanted cords are “duking it out” inside her to see which one can set up shop and create her new immune system.  This is known as engraftment syndrome.  Although it doesn’t appear to be an infection based on the cultures, last night her fever was above 103, which made for a rough night.  This morning her temp was back down in the 99s.  Let’s hope it stays there.

“Look for the cells coming at first light on the 8^th day.  At dawn, look to the east.”  Well, that’s not exactly what Gandalf said, but close enough.  So this morning we received the good news that Jessie has cells!!!  Yesterday her white blood cell counts and neutrophils were at <0.  Today her white blood cells were 220 and her neutrophils were 190.  So, this means that Jessie’s body should be in recovery mode.  The new cells are almost certainly from the expanded cord unit which is designed to help Jessie get through this rough period while the other transplant cord units do their thing.  That bit of news provided Jessie with a needed pick-me-up.  So, hopefully, in a few days I can return the blog to its rightful owner and you can once again be treated to blogs that are much more entertaining and contain far fewer Lord of the Rings references.  Until then, adios!